Studies show those risks imperil young lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender people at a greater rate nationwide than their young straight counterparts.

A new initiative operated by Birmingham AIDS Outreach this week received a $20,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham to help LGBT youth in the metro area avoid those problems. The effort has also raised $62,000 from other sources since May 2012.

The Magic City Acceptance Project grew from the work of small volunteer groups, mostly adults who had seen firsthand what young LGBT people faced, said Amanda Keller, the initiative's project director.

"They wanted to promote family acceptance and change those outcomes," Keller said of the groups. "These ideas have been around a while but this effort has come together very quickly."

The support of the Community Foundation is a sign, Keller said, that Birmingham is ready to have this discussion.

"Our goal is to have a community that is ready to move forward and that understands acceptance and promotes acceptance," Keller said. "We aren't trying to change anyone's beliefs, we just want a community that is more accepting."

To accomplish that, MCAP will work with youth-service agencies in Jefferson and Shelby counties, training more than 400 professionals at those agencies and assisting in research conducted by more than 100 area public health professionals.

The goal of those training sessions is to help people who work with young people provide better care, regardless of what they think or believe about gay and lesbian people, said Sarah Young, a licensed social worker who is working as MCAP's youth engagement director.

"People come to the table with a lot of opinions. Regardless of their comfort level, we need to serve the community," Young said. "We want to show that these are Alabama's sons and daughters. No matter how they feel, these are our young people and we want them to be healthy and accepted."

To tell that story, Young has been working with a group of young LGBT people, ages 16 to 21, to record the stories of other young LGBT people across Alabama. Although the Youth Voices Project predates the MCAP, it has been folded into the acceptance project to identify the problems facing LGBT youth in Alabama and find solutions to those problems.

"Being LGBT in Birmingham may be different than on the coast or in rural areas," Young said. "It's real Alabama LGBT young people so others know they are not alone."

About 40 interviews have been done and a total of about 100 are planned by the end of September and will be analyzed through the winter so that when 2014 starts MCAP will hopefully have a better idea of where its efforts should be focused.

But even without the interviews, social workers know from experience what young gay Alabamians face, Young said, and research backs what they see and hear, Keller said.

34 percent felt unsafe at school because of "real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity."

18 percent skipped school because they felt unsafe due to sexual orientation or gender identity.

60 percent of those who said they were harassed had trouble concentrating in class.

43 percent had suicidal thoughts.

33 percent attempted to harm themselves.

"This is in Alabama," Keller said. "Something needs to be done to protect young people and support them."

And while the young people conducting the Youth Voices Project have heard the stories of young gay people being turned out to streets and suicide attempts, Young said they are hearing others of people like them who started careers and families and found acceptance, all right here in Alabama.

"They know now there's a future for them in Alabama too," Young said. "That part of Alabama isn't seen. We're supposed to think it's miserable and you can't thrive. The positive stories aren't coming out."

To produce more of those positive stories, MCAP is waiting to learn from the upcoming Voices Project interviews what it is they need to be doing.

"The hardest part for us is to be patient and let them tell us," Keller said. "We're asking them what they want and hopefully we can give it to them."

"I commend the adults behind this. They realized we can't do programs for young people without young people," Young said. "We want to meet their needs in a direct way."